Jonathan Gannon Has Plenty to Clean Up, Starting with Tackling

Philadelphia was the worst tackling team in the NFL through Week 1, so that seems like the easiest and quickest fix for a team that surrendered 35 points to the Lions

PHILADELPHIA - The truth is usually pretty boring and when it came to the Eagles’ defensive issues in Detroit, the issue was tackling.

Of the NFL’s 32 teams Philadelphia was dead last, according to Pro Football Focus, when it came to one of the most fundamental parts of football, missing 14 tackles during a 38-35 season-opening win over the Lions.

Rewatch a couple of D’Andre Swift’s splash plays and you’ll see James Bradberry and Kyzir White whiffing on his 50-yard first-half scamper, and if you spy the Philadelphia native's 25-yard fourth-quarter burst on a screen it will be Javon Hargrave and Avonte Maddox standing out for the miscues.

Maddox and newcomer Chauncey Gardner-Johnson missed three apiece and seven defenders in all contributed to the issue.

Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon was his usual energetic self on coordinator day at the NovaCare Complex greeting reporters with his now familiar refrain of “Happy Tuesday.”

The defensive chief did, however, switch things up a bit by offering an opening statement stemming from the Week 1 overreaction madness.

“Just to start, obviously a lot of things we need to clean up and looking forward for that opportunity,” said Gannon. “I think it’s very clear to the coaches and the players after watching the game what we need to improve on quickly, from an execution standpoint, from a technique standpoint. I thought we did some good things, but 35 points is not good enough.

“Had a chance to put that game away a couple different times, I thought, and we didn't do it. Then that's what happens. You get into a dogfight like that. Overall happy that we won the game, but that is not the standard that we need. We need to improve quick, and we will.”

The obvious reaction to tackling issues was to point to the team’s summer plan, which was light on practice time, live periods, and preseason action. The low-hanging fruit was picked time and time again by disgruntled fans on social media.

“I really don't think it's a product of that,” Gannon said. “We just know that from what tackling is, that we've talked about, we've just got to be better at that, coach that better, and tackle better next week [against Minnesota] on Monday.”

Tackling tends to be an issue in a lot of places around the NFL early in the season but No. 32 is the worst number possible and head coach Nick Sirianni has consistently stated that the bottom five in any statistical category is not a place any team wants to be.

If the Detroit game proves to be an anomaly it will be quickly forgotten but if the Eagles are really a bad tackling team, there is certainly cause for concern that high expectations will not be met.

Undersized players on the edge (Hasson Reddick), linebacker (Kyzir White), and safety (Marcus Epps and Gardner-Johnson) don’t help when it comes to run support so technique and fundamentals have to be on point.

The fact that the Eagles were successful in a limited sample size with 345-pound nose tackle Jordan Davis in the game was a subject that wouldn’t let up on sports radio.

Both Sirianni and Gannon pointed to the discipline and devotion Detroit showed to its running game, however, noting that typically teams abandon the ground game when down by three scores.

The Lions doubled down.

“I thought they did a good job of keeping balanced, where I thought maybe they were going to start to throw it a little bit more, and that went into some decisions that we made to put who we put out there,” Gannon admitted.

“But again, though, ultimately, we can't let them go down the field, up and down the field in the second half and score a bunch of points like that We just have to play a little bit better, coach a little bit better.

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Sports. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talker Jody McDonald, every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube.com and JAKIBSports.com. You can reach John at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen


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John McMullen
JOHN MCMULLEN

John McMullen is a veteran reporter who has covered the NFL for over two decades. The current NFL insider for JAKIB Media, John is the former NFL Editor for The Sports Network where his syndicated column was featured in over 200 outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Miami Herald. He was also the national NFL columnist for Today's Pigskin as well as FanRag Sports. McMullen has covered the Eagles on a daily basis since 2016, first for ESPN South Jersey and now for Eagles Today on SI.com's FanNation. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube.com. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey and part of 6ABC.com's live postgame show after every Eagles game. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen